I Became the Youngest Prince in the Novel

Chapter 45: Illusionary Army (10)

TL/Editor: Rungir

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Outside the barrier around Kurd village.

"Whoosh!"

Clang clang clang!

There, a team of knights were tirelessly striking their blades against the barrier.

They were the fifth unit of the Ashen Lion knights.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Each time the knights hit their swords, loud booming sounds echoed.

How much time had gone by like this?

"This thing's tougher than we thought, huh?"

One of the knights, shaking and holding his near-breaking sword, spoke to the captain, Paulo.

Around thirty knights, including him, had been hitting away with all their might for about ten minutes, but there wasn't even a small mark on the barrier.

"We didn't use this much force when we fought the giant rebels..."

These were not just ordinary knights, but the best of the best, the Ashen Lion knights.

Nobody could predict the strength of the barrier that withstood all their top attacks.

"Usually, these round barriers are weaker outside than inside, as they're more to trap than stop invasion..."

Paulo rubbed his chin, murmuring with a serious face.

Even for him, who knew some magic, the barrier in front of him was a totally unknown type.

It felt like strange magic made by a being other than a human.

He was curious about it, but there was no time to study the barrier now.

'Prince Zion must be inside the barrier.'

And the phantom army of Chronos was almost surely inside the barrier too.

The more time they wasted here, the lower the chances of Prince Zion being alive would get.

'He might even already be gone...'

Thinking this, Paulo's eyes shone darkly.

"Everyone, move out of the way!"

A shout came from behind.

Paulo and the knights, who turned their heads at the shout, saw...

Clank clank!

Captain Caron, who hadn't helped break the barrier and had been watching from behind, was running towards them.

Roar!

Caron's sword was so brightly lit that it seemed to burn like a flame.

A light gathered again on Caron's sword, which started to give off even stronger flames.

'This isn't enough, once more.'

Caron, watching the getting-closer barrier, thought so and slightly twisted his sword-holding wrist.

With that,

Screeech!

The gathered light started to spin insanely fast, then condensed again to form a small point.

Mana control that could only be shown by someone who had gone beyond human abilities.

'Put all the power into one point.'

Finally, the moment Caron's thrown sword hit the barrier.

Boom!

A shock wave, strong enough to blur a person's sight for a moment, spread from the spot where the sword met the barrier, hitting the knights around it.

With it, a spider web-like crack appeared on the barrier's surface.

"Now's our chance! Hit the cracked area before the barrier heals!"

Paulo, who saw the scene despite the shock wave, yelled to the other knights.

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

At his call, the knights endlessly struck their swords towards the gap made by Caron.

Finally,

Crrrrack, boom!

A part of the once-unbreakable barrier broke, making a space big enough for two grown men to go in.

"We're going in."

Without waiting, Caron moved into the gap.

Following him, the 5th unit quickly joined him.

Shortly after going inside the barrier, from the mouths of Caron and the knights...

"...Huh?"

A shocked voice came out.

Just before going in, they had thought they'd see the phantom army wildly hurting the villagers and Prince Zion's group.

But inside...

Aaaargh!

A nightmarish scene.

If there was a picture of hell in the human world, would it look like this?

Soldiers in old armor and evil hands, which only exist in the body, were making a battleground of the abyss by killing each other.

Endlessly growing bodies and scattered blood.

"What in the world are these monsters..."

Was the war between good and evil in mythology like this?

They couldn't even tell which side to help.

With the totally unexpected sight, Caron's eyes, which were only watching the battle without any thoughts of joining,

"!!!!!!!"

At some point, they started to widen and fill with fear.

A giant empty space in the middle of the battlefield and a knight in black armor standing there.

The blue flames coming from the knight's body and his natural leading presence were telling them that the knight was the king controlling the phantom army.

However, what filled Caron's eyes with fear was not the king.

The figure reflected in the middle of his eyes.

That was precisely.

The figure of Zion, totally overpowering the king of the phantom army, who gave off energy so strong it made Caron wonder if he could even stand it, let alone fight it.

That was it.

Vrrrrrmm!

The eyes inside the king's helmet shook as they saw his own sword broken by Zion's blade.

The sword the king used was not just a simple blade; it was a showing of part of his power.

So the breaking of his sword was like his power being overwhelmed by his enemy.

Shocked, the king kept moving backward, trying to dodge Zion's non-stop sword strikes.

This was an experience the king had never faced before.

Feeling the incredibly amplified Black Star inside his veins, Zion landed and slightly crouched.

Soon after.

Boom!

The sound of the air bursting apart followed by Zion disappearing from the king's sight.

-Where...!

Before the king could fully form his words.

Without any warning, Zion appeared right in front of him, swinging his darkness-spewing Eclaxia horizontally.

Space was splitting along the path of Zion's blade.

'I must not block it.'

Feeling the chilling sensation coming from it, the king once again tried to move back to get out of the sword's range.

However.

"That won't work this time."

At that moment, Zion sped up again, quickly closing the gap between him and the king.

The king dodged Zion's sword swing by bending forward.

At that moment.

-...!

A knee, filled with dark energy, was coming up from below, filling the king's sight.

The sound was like a bomb going off, and the king's body was thrown upwards.

'Faster.'

Deciding not to lose the upper hand he'd grabbed, Zion rushed at the king with unbelievable speed.

The Lunar Eclipse.

It was the ultimate amplifier of the Black Star, increasing the limit of all available stats several times over, but it put a great strain on the body.

That's why Zion could feel his body breaking down in real time.

On top of that, the Lunar Eclipse was a technique that could only be used on a basic level after reaching the Black Star's third stage.

Even though he hadn't reached the third stage, he was using a loophole by utilizing Eclaxia to use the Lunar Eclipse, making it inevitably incomplete.

'One minute left.'

If it was just about keeping the blade of the Eclaxia, he had no problem for about five more minutes.

However, since he was calling the Lunar Eclipse while keeping the blade, the maintenance time was quickly shortening.

'I will finish it within that time.'

With that thought, Zion, who had reached right in front of the rising king, started to unleash a brutal barrage of attacks.

Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!

The cursed king was harshly pushed back by Zion's continuous attacks.

'How did he suddenly become so...'

A deep sense of surprise filled the king's eyes.

He couldn't understand it.

Until just a moment ago, the power of the being in front of him wasn't even at his feet.

That's why he was disappointed and at the same time, angry.

But now.

Even when he clashed directly with him, it was the king who was being pushed back.

Not only that, but speed, senses, split-second judgment, etc.

Everything about the contest far outshined his own.

'On top of that, that power.'

He hadn't noticed before because the gap in basic abilities was so vast, but now he could see it clearly.

The black sword the man held, and the alien darkness that enveloped his entire form.

Handling it proved more challenging than any power the king had faced before.

It negated and wiped out everything it touched.

'Maybe really...'

A faint glimmer of hope sparkled deep within the king's eyes.

Along with that.

Burst!

A surge of power far more substantial than before erupted from the king's entire body, continuously being pushed back.

Zion momentarily retreated to avoid the eruption as the amplified Black Star couldn't negate it entirely.

'...You are indeed unusual.'

The accursed king voiced, his eyes gleaming with a blue light as he regarded Zion.

'At first, I didn't think it was you. You were too weak.'

The Judge of Chronos.

The bearer of the title 'Judge of Chronos', the one who judges the king and the armies that have sinned against God.

And concurrently...

The one to liberate them from this hellish battlefield, in a ceaseless cycle.

They had waited for an uncountable length of time.

'But now, I'm unsure.'

The king intended to find out.

Whether the man standing before him was genuinely the Judge who would conclude all of this.

Whoosh!

The blue flames burning from the king's body shone brighter, scorching the surrounding air.

Along with that.

Vrrmm!

A large, azure sword was summoned into the king's only remaining hand.

'If you can withstand this...'

The cursed king slowly lifted the colossal sword.

Like a signal, the grand sword grew larger as it absorbed all the flames engulfing the king's body.

Finally, heaving the massive sword that extended even beyond the barrier above his head.

"I acknowledge you."

The Phantom Army's King pronounced to Zion.

Sea of Azure Flames.

The final strike, encompassing all the remaining power, was unleashed.

The divine sword, which had once eradicated an army of ten thousand in a single blow.

---------------!

The shadow of an enormous azure flame sword, large enough to cover the whole battlefield, descended targeting only Zion.

Humans and devils temporarily stopped their battles, staring at the colossal falling sword from the sky.

"…Madness."

The spectacle was so overpowering that words of astonishment unwittingly slipped from the mouth of Charon, who had just arrived at the battlefield.

A spectacle best described as a catastrophe.

"…"

Zion silently stared at the king's disaster plummeting towards him.

He couldn't avoid it.

The range was simply too broad.

'The remaining activation time for the Lunar Eclipse is about 5 seconds.'

Then…

'The only option is to shatter it head-on.'

With that thought,

Whoosh!

The Black Star sustaining the Sword God of Eclipse vanished entirely without a trace.

Moreover, the darkness that had been surging from the Extinction Sword and Zion's whole body also thoroughly concealed its presence.

Zion, in a moment, seemed no different from a common man.

Had he forsaken all?

He appeared as vulnerable as a single boat adrift on a turbulent sea.

"Reveal it to me!"

A shout brimming with deep yearning erupted from the cursed king's mouth.

Just as the azure giant sword, which seared the barrier's sky and plunged downwards, was about to cleave Zion in two,

Swoosh-

Zion gradually projected his half-sword forward.

Neither power nor skill was present.

A simple thrust.

The moment Zion's sword and the king's final assault made contact, everyone inside the barrier witnessed it.

A minuscule black point took shape between the tip of Zion's sword and the catastrophe of a sword fashioned by the king.

With such a black point,

Woosh!

The spectacle where the azure flaming giant sword, dominating the sky, was entirely drawn in!

The black armors that had been encircling the cursed king shattered and fell.

"Just now... what was that black entity?"

A feeble voice, on the verge of breaking off, escaped from the king's mouth.

"Infinite Abyss."

Zion sensed that the king bore a sense of relief.

"Thank you, Judge."

The king, whose helmet was half-broken, courteously bowed his head towards Zion.

"Thanks to you… I can finally rest."

Upon expressing those words, the decaying body of the cursed king,

Swish-

turned entirely to dust and dispersed.

"…"

Zion gazed at the spot where the Phantom Army's king had vanished, leaving not even a corpse behind.

Then,

Whoosh!

A space large enough for a person to enter materialized in front of Zion.

Zion slowly stepped into that space.

---

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